For the last four years, a consortium of Hispanic Mental Health researchers led by the principal investigator held annual national conferences on Hispanic Mental Health issues and research strategies. These conferences stimulated new research collaborations and contributed to the development of new grant applications and funded grants in this area. This proposal seeks support for a new series of yearly conferences on Mental Health issues relevant to Hispanic populations that will alternate theme and location. They aim to bring together promising young investigators with senior investigators in an effort to stimulate the networking and mentoring necessary to promote the entry of new investigators into Hispanic Mental Health research. The program will be guided by a steering committee composed of Hispanic and non-Hispanic mentors 3rd senior researchers. Selected "host institutions" will co-sponsor the conferences and take a leading role in structuring the program and related activities for that year by means of a planning committee. Fourteen (14) promising new investigators will be competitively selected each year. These new investigators will be paired with senior investigators with the expectation that papers presented at the meeting will result in peer-reviewed publications. The conferences will also feature a "keynote speaker" Lo provide an integrative overview on the theme of the meeting. In addition, we will offer special workshops led by experts on specific research issues (research grant opportunities, grant writing skills, etc). Outcomes of the conference will include number of peer reviewed publications, grants submitted/funded by the new investigators, quality aspects of mentor-mentee pairs and measures of networking and new collaborations. For 2002, the first year of the award, we propose to hold the conference September on 19 and 20 at the Nassau Inn in Princeton, New Jersey. The scientific focus of this conference will be "Mood Disorders in Hispanics: Epidemiology, Biology and Therapeutic Aspects".